Telecommuting is getting a lot of attention lately. According to the Forrester Research, there are about 34 million Americans who telecommuted in 2009 alone. The report says that this will go up to about 63 million by the time that 2016 rolls in. Telecommuting can significantly improve employee recruitment efforts and other overhead costs. For telecommuters, this mean that they can work at home and save money in many areas, such as car repairs, dining out, travel expenses, clothes, etc.

However, having a telecommute job, whether it is on a part time basis or a full time job, is not without challenges. One of these problems is directly connected with productivity. So if you want to learn how to tackle and deal with productivity drains, here are some of the best ways to make telecommuting easier. [Read more…]

We’ve long known that having a giant image at the top of a blog post will help the post perform and find an audience. People are visual, and that’s only become more of the norm as time has gone on. Many sites have redesigned their pages to highlight more, and larger, pictures.

But one thing that’s changed in recent years is how we find and share articles. Social media — and all of its various platforms — now requires writers and editors to have in mind how and where the blog posts will be seen as they construct the content. That’s not just for the headline and copy, though; the images, too, need to be relevant and shareable for people to be drawn to them. [Read more…]

Truth be known, you don’t have to, if you don’t want to; but if you have tried using web analytics to understand how your blog is performing in terms of readership and audience, you probably have felt the thrill of seeing stats go up! You probably have also experienced the sinking feeling in your stomach when you see that no one reads your blog. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. We may even have a t-shirt from it lying around somewhere.

In all seriousness, though, blogging – just like most any other activity – requires some sort of feedback. That is, if you want to know how you’re doing, and, if you actually have a goal that you want to achieve. And this, my friends, is the main reason bloggers need to pay attention to web analytics. [Read more…]

Unless you’re a superstar blogger who’s got it made, the chances are that you don’t – or can’t – rely on your own blog to bring home the bacon. That’s the stark reality, which we all have to face. Blogging is all fun and games until you make it your sole source of income, and suddenly, you realize that it might not be a good idea to do that.

That being said, there is no reason not to dream about becoming so big a blogger that you can stop worrying about other revenue streams. In the meantime, however, you might want to ensure – as much as possible – that you have financial stability in the mid- to long-term. Here are some ideas to get you going. [Read more…]

Viral videos are pretty hit or miss, and not many brands can match the virality of independent series like Awkward Black Girl. Still, the brands who try can end up winning big: Old Spice and Progressive are just two brands who’ve used humor, silliness and social media to achieve virtually instant name recognition. Videos that are useful or entertaining are the most shared, but there’s no real formula to making a viral video. That doesn’t mean, however, that brands won’t try–and some of them succeed.

For the first few seconds of Till Dance Do We Part it’s not hard to think this is a real show. It’s flashy and gaudy and just weird enough to be plausible: big audience, technically skilled dancers, and a judge who looks like a cross between Liberace, David Alan Grier and Prince. So, when the camera cuts to a female dancer smacking sidelong into a washing machine, the viewer’s surprised. We’ve just been tricked into watching a nearly pitch-perfect pastiche of reality show–and when the punch line comes, the viewer feels a little cheated. That’s what makes it compelling: for a split second, the viewer is left squinting at their laptop screen, not in on the joke.

But that doesn’t last long, and the punch line becomes genuinely funny. It shouldn’t be, because laughing at people who hurt themselves isn’t nice; but the slapstick element is a reminder of just how absurd the reality television industry has become. With the appearance of appliances comes the relief that a dance competition this crazy isn’t actually real. It’s what makes this video both entertaining and shareable. This month-old Sears commercial is proof that virality sometimes doesn’t happen. But Sears’ brand is recognizable enough that it doesn’t need an instantly measurable ROI, and this commercial will eventually become a gamble that pays off.